Guest Post: Keeping the excitement in a mature program

By Juanita B. Seel RN, CCDS, CDIP

I have had several people ask me how I keep the excitement alive in my department which has been in existence eight years. It is not hard to do when CDI is my love, passion, and life. I continually look for areas of improvement and where we can go from where we are today. I am never satisfied with accomplishing only the basics… but love to push forward to reach for the stars.

I firmly believe that CDI programs are one of the most important departments in the hospital. While some may disagree, CDI efforts not only captures the most accurate and concise diagnoses and most accurate and concise severity of illness and risk of mortality—it also protects the hospital against Recovery Auditor and other insurance auditors ability to deny a diagnosis and claim. If the documentation in the medical record is consistent from the beginning through the discharge summary, auditors have a real problem with denying claims.

I provide, through my own research and review, educational tips for the CDI specialists in my department. We schedule lunch and learn meetings where each documentation specialist selects a month and topic to present. The content of the presentation should be the signs and symptoms, clinical data, treatment and appropriate physician documentation.

The CDI specialists also develop and create educational posters to be placed on the nursing units. All of this is part of their yearly job evaluation for performance. CDI specialists should be very much involved with the education of the physicians. This creates an “ownership” for the CDI specialist. If there is a physician in the CDI area of specialty that is not documenting clearly, concisely and accurately, the CDI specialist takes “ownership” in working with this physician.

I prepare and create physician education sessions to the specialty departments on a regular basis. Each CDI specialist attends and is introduced to the physicians during the educational presentation.

Our physician queries are printed on “lime green” paper. I purchased bracelets for the CDI specialists with lime green stones. I create a true team spirit through listening to their ideas, researching their ideas and trying to implement their ideas when I can. We are a team. Teamwork is vital in the success of a CDI program. We are all working together in harmony and unison to accomplish the goals of the program.

CDI programs touch so many areas of the healthcare arena. A successful program will help in the collection of accurate and concise quality data for the hospital; it serves to accurately identify POA status of diagnoses. The program aids in the HAC documentation, too. It touches the revenue cycle.

I have a passion for CDI that pushes me to do better—drives me to ensure the program at my hospital is successful and causes me to lift my hands up to the stars to be successful.

Editor’s Note: Seel, at the time of this article's release, was Documentation Integrity Supervisor at Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center. She wrote this article for the DCBA Inc., Blog.